Book Report for January, February, and March 2023

I meant to write this post last week, but time and activities got away from me, so here is the rundown on what I have read in the first three months of this year. 

The Murder Rule, by Dervla McTiernan. Hannah Rokeby is a 3rd year law student in Maine who has decided to go to the University of Virginia for a semester, and work with the well-known Innocence Project, that works to free people from prison who have been wrongly convicted. Maybe she has stretched the truth to be accepted, and about her background, and maybe her specific agenda is a little bit different than others, but now she is there and hopes she can make a difference. She's hoping that she can make her mother's life better.

However, things happen and come to light that are definitely  not what she expected. And her opinions and ideas are challenged and her thinking starts to shift. Suddenly, everything she felt so certain about turns out to be different.

This book surprised me. I liked it well enough for most of the story, but at a certain point WOW did things change, and I couldn't stop reading.

The Mother-in-Law, by Sally Hepworth. This was such a good read! The primary storyteller is Lucy Goodwin, who married into the well-off Goodwin family. Having lost her own mother very young, Lucy hoped to create a bond with her mother-in-law, Diana. But Diana is not the person Lucy was hoping for - successful, self-assured, and not a cozy warm person. At the very beginning of the book the police come to Lucy and her husband Ollie's house to let them know that Diana was found dead in the family home, with a suicide note. But as the story progresses, it seems more likely that it was homicide.

In chapters told primarily by Lucy and Diana, in the past and the present, we learn more about the whole family, their relationships, and tensions that ebbed and flowed among them. It's a really interesting look at what makes individuals who/what they are, and how family dynamics affect everything. 

I was somewhat surprised by the ending, but also thought it was a reasonable one for the story.

Wrong Place Wrong Time, by Gillian McAllister. This was a book that required suspension of disbelief, but it was worth it. 

A woman is waiting for her teenage son to come home from an evening out when she sees him stab someone to death right in front of their house. She's never seen the man before, and her son has never been in any kind of trouble. The police seem ready to charge the boy with murder.

When she wakes up the next day, it's the day before. Can she stop the murder from happening altogether? Each day when she wakes up, she is further into the past. How far will she gave to go to change things in the future, and what will she learn on the way?

I had my doubts, but this book ends up being really interesting and thoughtful. It makes you consider all the moments in your life that were actually the important things, and how you might be caught up in too many unimportant things to really be paying attention.

At first I wasn't sure I liked the ending, but with more thought, I have decided it was the only way it could have been true to the story that was being told. There are lots of surprising twists that keep you going.

The Woman in Blue, by Elly Griffiths. When Ruth Galloway's friend Cathbad is cat sitting for a friend, he sees a vision of a beautiful woman in a blue cape in a graveyard, and wonders if he has had a vision of the Virgin Mary. When the body of a young woman in a blue dressing gown is found in that location the next day, it is determined that she is a murder victim.

Meanwhile, another friend of Ruth's from college who is now an Anglican priest contacts her to say she's attending a course nearby and could they meet while she's there. As it turns out, she has been receiving really frightening letters from someone who does not think women should be priests. And when another female priest, who happens to resemble the murder victim is killed, it begins to look like the murders and the letters could be related. 

Ruth, DCI Nelson, and the usual cast of characters start trying to find the murderer, the letter writer, and also deal with events and revelations in their own lives. 

This was a interesting installment in the series, with everything coming to a head during a performance of a Passion Play on Good Friday. It wasn't as creepy as some of the other books, but still a good read.

Someday, Maybe, by Onyi Nwabineli. This book is a rare being - a book that is fiction, but can capture the truth of experiencing real grief.

The main character, Eve, has to deal with the discovery of her husband and best friend's body after he has committed suicide. Quentin (or "Q" as he is known to those close to him) showed no indication to his friends or family that anything was bothering him, or that he was in any deep emotional turmoil. Eve is fortunate in one way, in that she has her parents and siblings nearby to where they lived in London, so they can keep things going while she deals with unimaginable grief. Her parents, Nigerian immigrants and medical professionals, want so much for her to deal with things in a way that they thing will help her, but Eve points out more than once in the story that you can't grieve on others' schedules, no matter how much they may want you to.

There's also the complication of Aspen, Eve's mother-in-law, Q's mother, and one of the most well-known people in England, due to the family fortune. The ultimate upper-class rich WASP, she has never approved of Eve or her family, and blames Eve for Q's death. The one thing Eve is able to do while grieving is manage to hold control of Q's funeral and burial, knowing what he really wanted, despite what Aspen thinks he wanted.

There are so many layers to this book. Grief, and how it completely incapacitates you. The fact that most people compartmentalize grief, and feel that you should be fine shortly after - you know, ready to "carry on" and return to the world. The fact that no matter how close you might be with someone, how you can never possibly know every single thing about them, and how it may be clearer to complete strangers. How at different points of grieving, different feelings and desires take over your life. And how family struggles - both immediate family and in-law families - can add so many complications to every single aspect of grief and recovering.

This book reminds you that you never really get over the death of someone you truly love. Yes, life does go on, and it can be sweet afterwards - Eve is starting to learn and understand that at the end of the book - but no one is ever the same. 

Apparently this is the debut work of this author. I sincerely cannot wait to see what comes next.

Dear Edward, by Ann Napolitano. This is a very bittersweet story. Edward, who starts the book as "Eddie," is a 12-year-old boy flying from New York City to Los Angeles,  where the family is moving, when the plane crashes over Colorado. Edward is the sole survivor, and goes to live with his aunt and uncle in New Jersey. The book tells the story of Edward, but also some of the other passengers. As he navigates his changed life, he changes and so do those around him. 

When he and a friend discover duffel bags full of letters in the uncle's garage, they start reading them.  "Dear Edward" they all begin, and as they read them, Edward realizes that people want to know that he saw/talked to the person they knew and loved on that flight, that he had some connection. 

I think the author did an excellent job with this book, and this kind of story. Using a 12-year-old boy as the hero in this kind of story could have resulted in things going a complete different way. But we see Edward clearly, feel his confusion and his pain, and understand that in the end, life is good.

The Widowmaker, by Hannah Morrissey. I gave this book 2 stars because I did want to read to see how it all worked out, but I can't say I liked it. I didn't really click with any of the characters, and the story was dark, kind of twisted, and frankly it just took too long to get to where it needed to be.

Strangers At The Gate, by Catriona McPherson. Good Lord, this book has a lot going on! It seems like a quiet book at first, with a couple moving to a small town in Scotland where the husband has been offered a small law firm partnership, and the wife a part-time deacon at the local church. The circumstances of the offers and arrangements for their housing are a bit unusual, but you figure Oh well it's one of those stories.

But definitely not! For instance the first day the couple are in town, they are invited to dinner at the senior partner's house where they spend a nice evening.  On their way home,  the wife realizes she left her bag at the house; they return to retrieve it, and find the couple murdered in the kitchen! And believe me, that's the most normal thing that happens in the whole book. 

It's very readable, and interesting for what it is. But I should have guessed that since I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters, it wouldn't be a book I loved.

A Room With A Brew, by Joyce Tremel. This is another entertaining entry in the series. 

Max O'Hara and friends are prepping for the first ever Oktoberfest at her brew pub. Things are going smoothly, and she invites the group to accompany her to hear the band she has hired for the festivities. All goes well, until one of the band members insists that he knows her friend Candy. Candy, usually the friendliest of them all, is just downright rude. The next day, another band member calls Max and asks her to meet with him, acting rather mysterious. When she finally tracks him down, she finds his body instead of finding out what he wanted to tell her.

So the search begins to find out who killed him and why.

The story is readable enough, but as usual what I enjoyed the most were all of the references to people and places in Pittsburgh, and the "Pittsburgh-ese" spoken by some of the characters. I did supect part of the plot resolution, but didn't have everything figured out.

Agatha Christie : An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley. This was a really good book, well-written, and though probably more academic than I was expecting,  it was very accessible.  Granted, I didn't know a whole lot about Agatha Christie to start, but I would guess there is plenty here that a lot of readers didn't know. 

Christie was an interesting character on her own, who lived through a lot of change during her lifetime. As a result, her character and her life were full of changes and contradictions that make thebook interesting.  I think that Lucy Worsley has created a very detailed story of Christie's life that gives the reader anew appreciation for her place in literature,while also providing background for so many of her stories.

Vexed on a Visit, by Fiona Grace. This was an amusing and quick read, and the break I needed.

This time around, Lacey is worried because her dog Chester is sick, and will have to stay at the vet. And she and her boyfriend Tom are planning a romantic getaway.  But Lacey's friend Ginny assures her she will be happy to visit Chester during that time. 

But another major glitch comes up when Lacey's family - her mother, her sister Naomi, and her nephew Frankie - show up to surprise her with a visit on their way on a trip to Scotland. Tom invites them to come along and there goes the romantic part ...

While the others go shopping, Lacey and Frankie go exploring. They stop at an antique shop where the owner is a really unpleasant character. They buy grab bag of old coins, and later when Frankie is sorting them they find a gold coin that looks to be from Roman times.

After an unpleasant confrontation with the shop owner in a local restaurant (he accuses them of stealing the coin), the shop owner is found murdered in his store. Now it's up to Lacey to figure out what happened so suspicion is off her.

The mystery is interesting enough, but also the depictions of Lacey's family - loud New Yorkers in a quiet English village - makes it entertaining.

Bookplate Special, by Lorna Barrett. This was actually better than I was expecting it to be. When Tricia Miles' college roommate Pammy Fredericks comes for a "surprise short visit" Tricia didn't think she would mean two weeks. Realizing that Pammy stole one of her checks, wrote it to herself for $100 is the last straw, and Tricia kicks her out.

Later the same day, Pammy's body is found in a large trash bin, which doesn't make Tricia look good. But asTricia looks into things, she finds out that Pammy had made a lot of enemies during her visit, and was telling people that she would be coming into a lot of money soon. 

But there's so much more happening in this book, several subplots of interest as well. I enjoyed it.

Voyage of the Narwhal, by Andrea Barrett. During the mid-nineteenth century, exploration of the Arctic was the goal of many expeditions. Among the most famous was the ill-fated Frankilin Expedition, where the crews of two ships were trapped during an Arctic winter anniversary heard from again.

Erasmus Darwin Wells, a naturalist in Philadelphia, is asked by a family friend to join his expedition on a ship called the Narwhal to forge new Arctic paths and perhaps locate members of, or information about what happened to those with Franklin. The friend, Zeke Voorhees, is young, from a wealthy family, and it is assumed that on return he will marry Lavinia, Erasmus' sister. Though Zeke is inexperienced, Erasmus is thrilled to have a chance to explore the Arctic flora and fauna, and hopefully save his scientific reputation which had been damaged in a previous naval expedition. 

Things don't go as well as expected, and not only must they winter over on the ship, but eventually a skeleton crew manages to make their way back by other means, broken, grief-stricken, and just barely with their lives.

As the story is told, we learn that Zeke did not really assemble a stellar crew; that he was in it for his own glory; and that, as things go along, he becomes more and more convinced that only he knows anything.

Tha story of the voyage is interesting if harrowing at times, but the story of the aftermath is just as riveting and horrifying in its own way.  Andrea Barrett has managed to make you feel invested in the characters, involved in the time period, and appalled at the way humans can behave. The ending is hopeful, and you want to learn more about everything during that time.

Out of the Clear Blue Sky, by Kristan Higgins. Lillie Silwa is a lifelong resident of Cape Cod, a certified nurse midwife, a wife and mother. The night before her son's high school graduation, her husband tells her he wants a divorce because he has met someone younger, who brings him joy. The book is basically Lillie's story after this announcement, and how she deals with all of it.

The book is a mixture of sad, frustrating, shocking, and sometimes quit funny. Lillie knows what she should do, but often allows her emotions to rule. 

Her ex-husband and new young wife area continual part of the story, and the way Lillie's interactions with them change over the course of the book us more interesting than I was expecting.

Shrines of Gaiety, by Kate Atkinson. I gave this 3 stars because even though it's interesting and a good enough read, it's also depressing. 

The story revolves around Nellie Coker and her adult children, who run several dance clubs in London during the 1920s. The local police are believed to be corrupt,  so someone from Scotland Yard is sent to find the sources. There are also young girls disappearing and their bodies being fished out of theThames to be resolved.

Apparently the book is based on a real person, with a similar lifestyle to Nellie Coker. I think a book about her would have been more interesting.

Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny. This book finds Armand Gamache on suspension from the Surete du Quebec, after he supposedly "allowed" a huge amount of drugs more deadly than fentanyl cross the border from the U.S. 

But it begins with Gamache, Myrna (the psychologist turned bookstore owner in Three Pines), a young builder being called to a meeting with a notary,where they learn they are the liquidators (aka executors) if the sill of a recently deceased woman.  Which is interesting,  because none of them have a clue who the woman was.

These two stories develop and are eventually resolved by the end of the book, but there are so many aspects of each story involved, you really wondering there can be any good solutions.  Once I reached the end of the book, I was really wanting to read the next, to see how things move forward.

The Chalk Pit, by Elly Griffiths. When digging for a new, trendy underground restaurant, some bones are discovered.  So Ruth Galloway is called to do an excavation,  under the assumption that they are medieval bones.  But when it turns out that they are more recent, the police are called in.  Atthe same time, some homeless men have been found stabbed, and a few women have completely disappeared, including Detective Inspector Clough's partner. 

This was both an interesting and disturbing book, involving underground societies, people who think their ideas are reasonable when they are in fact crazy, and the possibility of cannibalism. 

But there are also big changes for main characters in the series, when Ruth's mother has a stroke, Nelson's wife surprises him with shocking news, Clough gets married.

I have a few suspicions about where things might be headed as the series winds down ... but I've been wrong before, so we'll see.

Still Life, by Sarah Winman. I loved this book. 

I'm not even going to try and summarize what happens, because it is too much and there are so many characters that are "main" enough characters that it would take too long. 

But I will say that if you like to read about history (WWII and beyond), art, relationships, family, Florence, E.M. Forster, and the journey of several lives that intersect, I don't think you can go wrong reading this book. It is one of my favorite things I've ever read, and beautifully written. 

The author does an amazing job of evoking time and place, and making each character real and alive.

The Book of Goose, by Yiyun Li. I wanted to like this, but really didn't from the start, so after about 5 chapters, I decided it wasn't for me.

And that's it. Let me know if you have read anything recently that is worth a look or even not worth even starting. I have a large pile of books to be read, and some on hold at the library, but I'm always happy to add to the list!